Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process cartridge, an image forming method, and an electrophotographic apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In typical electrophotographic processes, the surface of an electrophotographic photosensitive member is uniformly charged, a latent image is formed through exposure, the latent image is made visible as a toner image by being developed with a toner, the toner image is transferred onto a transfer material such as paper, and then the toner image is fixed on the transfer material to obtain a printed matter. A toner left on the electrophotographic photosensitive member without being transferred onto the transfer material is removed from the electrophotographic photosensitive member by a cleaning device. The cleaning device is, for example, a blade, a fur brush, or a roller.
In recent years, a so-called “cleanerless system” in which a toner left on an electrophotographic photosensitive member is collected by a developing device without using a cleaning device has been desired in view of miniaturization of electrophotographic apparatuses and ecology.
In a cleanerless system in which such a cleaning device is simply removed, defective images (so-called fogging images) tend to be formed due to charging failure caused by contamination of a charging member. To suppress the contamination of the charging member, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-70518 discloses that a cleaning member is provided which cleans a charging member by rubbing the surface of the charging member. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 10-207186 and 10-312102 also disclose that the contamination of the charging member is suppressed by disposing a second contact charging member to control the polarity of a residual toner.